The Handmaiden: Extended Cut

This masterful thriller of love and vengeance has been hailed for its liberating depiction of female sexuality. The Handmaiden is based on Sarah Waters’ novel “Fingersmith”, a feministic suspense thriller portraying a female thief trying to take advantage of the upper classes. While the novel was set in Victorian times in England, Park Chan-wook has relocated the setting to Japan-occupied Korea in the 1930s.

The film sets off with the false count Fujiwara hiring the young pickpocket Sook-he to be a handmaiden for the rich noblewomen Hideku. The plan is for Sook-he to seduce Hideku into marrying the false count Fujiwara, so that he can steal her fortune and then split it with Sook-he. All goes according to plan, until Sook-he seduces Hideku herself, rather than getting her to marry Fujiwara. From here the film progresses at an amazingly high tempo! Through the film consists of three acts, told from the three main characters’ perspective, old intrigues are unveiled, whilst twists and turns occur in the new plot.

Female sexuality is the main driving force of the plot, in line with the author's original intent for the book. However if a film like Fifty Shades of Grey was an example of how non-liberating explicit portrayals of female sexuality can be, The Handmaiden is an example of the opposite. The film is also Parks most audience-friendly work so far in his career. The horror and violence from his previous work is to a large extent replaced by love and thrilling suspense. In addition, The Handmaiden is actual eye-candy, surpassing most period dramas in exquisite production, design and picturesque locations. In other words, The Handmaiden is a treat that should not be missed.

The film is screened in an extended cut version with material that was omitted from the film for its original release.

Park Chan-wook (b. 1963) from South Korea is one of the world's foremost contemporary filmmakers. He has directed a number of visually spectacular and immersive films, and got his international breakthrough with JSA: Joint Security Area (2000) and Oldboy (for which he won the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2003). Thematically, many of his characters are motivated by revenge.